One of the biggest opportunities in SMB marketing today is the ongoing democratization of video advertising. Generative video models bring production costs down to almost zero, while expanding CTV inventory and programmatic placement make supply abundant and more SMB friendly (read: affordable).
This is a world we’ve been watching closely, from the generative AI creation end (Creatify), to platforms (Magnite), and traditional media giants (Comcast) that are building comprehensive CTV stacks. As they do this, the opportunity is to reach a long tail of SMBs who have always wanted to be on TV but couldn’t.
Zeroing in on one of these players, Comcast’s Universal Ads division continues to invest heavily in building out its CTV capabilities. As Head of Platform Partnerships & GTM, Greg Lieber said on stage at Localogy’s recent L26 event in Houston, it’s all about bringing Main Street to prime time.
Since then, we’ve been keeping a close eye on Universal Ads. Among other updates, Digiday reports that it recently integrated more AI campaign optimization; the ability for SMBs to sync their CRM systems to target CTV campaigns; and expanded access to big-name broadcast TV channels in Comcast’s roster.
Household Names
Let’s tackle those updates one at a time. Starting with AI integrations, Universal Ads already works with Creatify for low-friction AI ad creation. More recently, it released a Model Context Protocol (MCP) that lets teams bring their own AI, such as Claude agents that optimize campaigns or analyze performance.
That will appeal more to brands and agencies than SMBs, but it’s still a step towards making Universal Ads more capable and attractive. Meanwhile, Universal Ads’ partnership with commerce media firm Koddi is very much SMB-centric. It lets businesses use their CRM data to better target CTV campaigns.
That includes marketing to specific user segments with customized messaging. For example, SMBs can build several ad variations – again, with low production cost – that are each customized to segments such as existing customers, new customers, and lookalike audiences that mirror existing customers.
Importantly, the Koddi collaboration also allows SMBs to reach beyond typical CTV channels and streaming apps to reach broadcast channels. These include the networks and channels to which Comcast has first-party access. We’re talking NBCU and household names like Fox and Paramount.
Growing the Pie
The above updates were just a few in the rapid-fire investments and expansions of Universal Ads’ CTV stack. And they were recently put to the test in a high-value vertical in the local SMB mix: Pizza. Working with Slice – a pizza ordering, fulfillment, and operational platform – it ran ads for several pizza joints.
This extended Slice’s role from an SMB SaaS platform to sort of an agency – bringing its customers not just operational support but marketing and visibility. And for Universal Ads, the collaboration allowed it to run campaigns from several pizza joints (20 in all) through a single point of entry and one handshake.
Each of these pizza joints spent about $500 per month over three months for targeted CTV ads that ran in their respective zip codes. Best of all, per the above expansions into high-value traditional broadcast channels, some of these ads ran during prime-time slots such as NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage.
And the results? Campaigns achieved an average 3.2 percent incremental sales lift over benchmarks, and a 16.8 percent lift after campaigns ended. The latter demonstrates sustainability and staying power, while the whole thing was achieved for $500 per month. That’s the true sound of “SMB friendly.”
